Yellowstone National Park
Trip Start
Nov 22, 2007
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45
55
Trip End
Dec 01, 2008
Yellowstone National Park,
Wyoming,
United States
Monday, August 11, 2008
What a diverse park Yellowstone is! There is a bit of something for everyone in this park. Wildlife abounds, sometimes holding up traffic for miles. Geysers are everywhere on the west side of the park. Yellowstone Lake provides a different landscape to the east. Mountains wait to be climbed in the northeast, hot springs percolate in the northwest. And everywhere are waterfalls, waterfalls, waterfalls. We spent just under a week in this park, but could easily have spent a week more. We will go back for some of the things we couldn't work into our schedule this time around.
Yellowstone is huge, and its many different sections are spread out over about 75 miles north-south and 50 miles east-west. Needless to say we put many miles on the motorcycles at this park. We stayed at the campground at Madison Junction. Each direction from the campground provided a different type of ride, depending on the landscape
001
. The principal areas we explored were Firehole Canyon near our campground at Madison; the Old Faithful area, with the surrounding geyser basins and Firehole Lake Drive; Fishing Bridge and Yellowstone Lake; and Mt. Washburn. Firehole Canyon
A short scenic drive off the main road near Madison winds through Firehole Canyon. The road is wooded with pine and spruce and hilly, with the Firehole River to your right cutting through the canyon. Along the river are fly-fishers hoping to catch cut-throat, waterfalls and swimming holes (yes, there were even some people swimming in the cold water!). It's a very pretty drive and definitely recommended.
Geyser Area
We, of course, had to see Old Faithful-how could you go to Yellowstone and not? The geyser goes off every 93 minutes or so, and we arrived at about 10 minutes before the event. They have a lot of benches set up for viewing and people already were crowded around, waiting, anticipating. A young teenager sitting next to us was filled with information about Old Faithful and eager to pass along his new-found knowledge: the eruption lasts from 1 ½ to 5 minutes and reaches up to 180 feet high. Apparently, attempts to capture what happens underground on film have led to very expensive molten sculptures that used to be cameras
002 Lewis Falls (south end of park)
. The heat of the geyser waters can exceed 199 degrees. It's nice to know that kids are still out there taking an interest in these natural phenomena and are excited enough to voluntarily read and pass along their interest. We have seen so many bored, apathetic children with various electronic gadgets glued to their hands and ears on this trip-it was a pleasant change-and a nice way to learn!Well, Old Faithful was faithful and went off as predicted. I don't know if it's the hype, whether the cloudy skies affected our perspective, or the fact that every photo you ever see of Old Faithful seems awe-inspiring-I don't know what we were expecting-but it just wasn't as impressive as we imagined it would be. It was interesting and you wouldn't want to miss it, but we found some of the other hot spots (pun intended) of the park more unique and inspiring.
One of my favorites was exploring the upper and lower geyser basins where there are a variety of hot springs, geysers, fumaroles (steam vents), and mud pots (acidic hot springs with limited water supply). What surprised us most were the colors! we had little knowledge of the geologic forces at work here and how they interact to create such a lovely palette of yellows, reds, blues and greens. The colors correspond to the heat of the water-each color is specific to a particular type of bacteria that grows only at a particular temperature, blue pools being among the hottest
003 Lewis Lake
. Some of the pools are crystal clear; others vary from translucent to thick white mud. And the noise-they bubble and gurgle and belch! Some smell strongly of sulfur; some stand in deep, unmoving emerald pools; some ooze along the surface of the earth spreading oranges, yellows and reds across the crusty ground like a large rusty lake only inches deep, running into heated river waters. You walk among them along boardwalks, like walking through a living garden. Every few minutes one of the geysers will erupt, begging for your attention. This place was a real treat!!Another geyser adventure awaits on Firehole Lake Drive-a short but action-packed scenic drive in the Lower Geyser Basin between Old Faithful and Madison. This drive is filled with geysers of all kinds-some that erupt every few minutes very predictably, and some that are utterly unpredictable. Every visit to this section would likely bring a new experience. One of my favorites here was the one that reminded me of a fourth grade science project volcano-you know the one where you make a papier-mâché volcano and mix baking soda and vinegar together to make it erupt.
You can take side hikes off the boardwalks to various waterfalls and scenic points. We took one and were able to see Old Faithful erupt in the far distance from atop a scenic outlook on our way to a waterfall. Along the trail (and throughout the park), you can see the remnants of the great fires-standing black and grey tree trunks with no branches still standing after 20 years, surrounded by short young pine trees growing in thick and green
004 Old Faithful
. The mixture reminding us of nature's contrary traits of self-destruction and resilience. (Although people do start fires, often lightening is the source.)Lake Area
The southeast side of Yellowstone is completely different. Traveling on the main road the hills, woods, and waterfalls north of the geyser basins ebb and prairies filled with bison come into view. Hundreds of bison dot the landscape and cross the roadway, holding up traffic as you head south toward Fishing Bridge and Lake. These areas sit at the edge of Yellowstone Lake, North America's largest mountain lake at 20 miles long, 14 miles wide, and 430 feet deep at the deepest point.
We hiked along the edge of the lake. We explored the woods and came across a marmot. Further along, in a clearing, we found a bunch of bones-remains of a buffalo (we think). The skull was missing, but we found the lower jaw bone, teeth still intact. The highlight of our hike was a stop we made on the way back. I saw some pretty purple flowers growing solitarily out of a dead tree stump in the woods and stopped to photograph them. As I was doing this, Bob was looking around with his binoculars and happened to look up in a tree above him. Right there, perched at the top was a golden eagle-about 25 feet overhead! Wow-these are some big birds-you can really appreciate the size when you are that close
005 the beginning
. We have seen some in flight during our trip, but having the opportunity to view one so close and stationary is an extraordinary experience. Mt. Washburn
One of the things on our wish list of creatures that we had yet to see in our travels was bighorn sheep. A ranger assured us that the best place to see them would be from atop Mt. Washburn on the Northeast side of the park. We got up early one day to make the 35-mile drive to the trailhead at Dunraven Pass. The Mt. Washburn trail is steep-it climbs from about 8,000 feet to the peak of over 10,000 feet. Along the way, other hikers were coming down the trail and we asked them had they seen any bighorns. A few said, yes, they had, but they were very far away in the distance and to the left of the ranger tower at the peak. We continued our trudge up the mountain. As we neared the last part of the trail, the trail split-you could continue to the peak, or head toward the left of the peak and across the side of the mountain to another lookout point. We went to the left, since that is where others said the sheep were and we wanted to get as close as we could for pictures. Well, Bob happened to see the characteristic white rearend of a bighorn through the binoculars some many hundred yards away on a hilltop below and ahead of us. The bighorn quickly disappeared behind a thick stand of pines. That was it! No more. We debated going further along the steep and winding trail, but the skies were quite threatening by this time, and a few raindrops persuaded us that it would be prudent to head back to the motorcycles. Thirty-five miles home in the rain on the bikes on twisted mountain roads is not our idea of fun.
To save time, we cut across a field to catch the trail at a lower point on the mountainside. As we were coming over a knoll, Bob suddenly said, "Look-a herd of bighorn!" I was looking far ahead and couldn't see a thing
007 At the height
. Wouldn't you know it, the small herd of about eight sheep was just below us on a mountain ridge, not more than about 50 yards away. When we saw them, I took our camera and slowly hiked down and around them for a better view. I was sure that they would be startled and run off if they caught sight of me. But as I set up about 10 yards away from them, a couple got up and started grazing. I remained very still as the rest of the herd followed suit. Slowly they came closer to me-until they were not more than 10 feet away and looking right at me! Incredible--and a bit scary at the same time. I got some great photos, and an experience of a lifetime! Even a National Geographic photographer would be jealous!! What a thrill!We would have spent more time at Yellowstone, but we wanted to get up to Glacier National Park before the weather got too cold. Things we missed at Yellowstone and plan to go back for are Mammoth Springs, the Yellowstone Canyon area, and the Tower-Roosevelt area. There are many more adventures to be had here!!
